Return to Transcripts main page

NEWS STREAM

Suicide Bomber Kills At Least 43 At School In Northeast Nigeria; Beijing's Tightening Grip On Dissidents; The Science Of Christopher Nolan's Interstellar; The Politics Of Death Penalty In South Korea; Protests Continue In Mexico City Over 43 Missing College Students; Free Clinic On Thailand-Myanmar Border Seeks To Treat Poor

Aired November 10, 2014 - 8:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


KRISTIE LU STOUT, HOST: I'm Kristie Lu Stout in Hong Kong. And welcome to News Stream where news and technology meet.

Now APEC begins with a bang as China welcomes world leaders. But tough topics on the agenda could lead to fireworks of a different sort.

Plus, anger in Mexico: protests grow after the attorney general says dozens of missing students are believed to be dead.

And mourning the victims of MH17. Right now, a moving memorial service is underway in The Netherlands.

We begin this hour in Beijing where world leaders are gathering for a summit on Asia-Pacific economic cooperation.

Now U.S. President Barack Obama spoke earlier saying the United States welcomes the rise of a prosperous and peaceful China. He also stressed the

importance of the two countries' trade relations.

Now the APEC summit also brought together the heads of China and Japan for their first face-to-face talks since each took office.

Now this is considered a breakthrough in tensions between the two countries who have had a long-standing territorial dispute over a chain of

violence in the East China Sea.

Now let's get more on some of the issues dominating the summit. CNN's David McKenzie joins me live from Beijing.

And David, President Obama, he says he welcomes the rise of a prosperous and peaceful China, but when he speaks with the Chinese

President, what will be on the agenda?

DAVID MCKENZIE, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, they'll be tricky issues on the agenda, including cyber spying technology issues as

well as of course press freedoms and human rights. Chiefly, APEC, Kristie, is about trade issues. This 21 nation meeting of the Asia and Pacific,

it's certainly the biggest meeting for world leaders on Chinese soil since the 2008 Beijing Olympics. So China wants to put its best face forward and

this is certainly a lot of show and showing off, of course, of President Xi Jinping and his rise as a powerful leader in the region.

But as you say there are tricky issues on the agenda. A number of prominent human rights groups called on U.S. President Barack Obama to

bring up the issue of human rights. And while Chinese President Xi Jingping has called on an Asia-Pacific dream for dissidents in China, in

the last few months and years it's been somewhat of a nightmare.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MCKENZIE: The gleaming towers of Beijing, an image the ruling Communist Party wants to show off. But there's another side to the Chinese

capital. In an apartment complex called Freedom City, evidence of the party's latest crackdown on human rights.

So one of China's most prominent dissidents lives in this compound in the east of Beijing. We're going to see if we can access him.

Can we go inside here?

But plain-clothes state security is everywhere here, sometimes 20 at a time.

Yeah, but it's just -- this is just a private complex. What's the problem?

The extraordinary measures are for just one man.

Hu Jia (ph) is a human rights icon in China, an agitator for reform and democracy. This time around, he's been under house arrest for more

than 40 days.

The authorities don't want Hu to reach diplomats or journalists. But there are other ways to talk.

HU JIA, HUMAN RIGHTS ACTIVIST (through translator): They have state security agents outside my door for 10 years 24 hours a day, 365 days a

year. Their work is to preserve the Communist Party, not to preserve the safety of the people or even the government, but the party.

MCKENZIE: Human rights groups say that China's government is engaged in the worst crackdown on dissidents in decades. Activists, professors and

journalists have all be detained this year alone.

Hu says China's President Xi Jinping has declared war on human rights and he has a message for President Obama.

JIA: I think Mr. Obama should bring up the human rights crackdown with Xi Jingping. If he doesn't, it would be a huge loss for himself, for

China and for American values.

MCKENZIE: The Communist Party says activists like Hu are lawbreakers, that they threaten China's social stability.

JIA: Oh, just a moment.

MCKENZIE: Hu wants to show a present he bought for his young daughter's upcoming birthday.

JIA (through translator): When she came to visit me in prison, she used to carry a toy like this. I saw hope in this toy. It's become a

symbol of my fight for her future freedom and happiness.

MCKENZIE: He says they won't let him see her this year.

But despite years of jail, house arrest and harassment, Hu Jia says he won't give up his fight for a different kind of China.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MCKENZIE: Kristie, just this year Professors, intellectuals, lawyers and journalists have all been detained by the Chinese government and what

rights groups see as a round crackdown on human rights in this country.

Whether President Obama brings this issue up with his counterpart in China. We might not know, because in the past when the U.S. government has

done this in public it's often back-fired -- Kristie.

LU STOUT: In its extraordinarity here and to listen to Hu Jia's appeal to U.S. President Barack Obama where she is forced to make via

videoconferencing since he remains under house arrest.

Now you are watching all angles of the APEC summit today. And David, there was a significant meeting that took place today between China and

Japan. But just how much breaking of the ice actually took place in these talks?

MCKENZIE: Well, certainly it was an awkward moment when Xi Jinping stood up and shook hands with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. But even an

awkward moment and a handshake would be considered a breakthrough after years of frosty relations between China and Japan. As you know, Kristie,

they've had this dispute over islands in the East China Sea. There was also the issue of Japan's prime minister visiting a war memorial, which

included remains of war criminals.

This has all rankled the Communist Party in China and for months they've been on a propaganda campaign here in China to, as it were, push

the dark history of Japan in this country.

But it seems now that the countries have decided to at least for the moment issues aside, agree to disagree, which is in fact significant

diplomatically in this case and maybe we will see better relations. Certainly in East Asia it would be a good thing for business at least if

China and Japan put aside their differences and try and negotiate some of the free trade agreements that could be in the office in the months to

come.

We do believe they won't necessarily be any significant trade announcements during this APEC summit, but any progress will be seen as

positive for the global business community -- Kristie.

LU STOUT: As you put it, the two leaders agreed to disagree. And you could see it quite clearly in their body language. David McKenzie

reporting live from Beijing for us, thank you, David.

Now to a huge explosion outside a school in Nigeria. And a warning, the images we are about to show you are very graphic. At least 47 people

are dead, dozens more are injured.

These images, they are just into CNN. Police say that this blast was caused by a suicide bomber dressed as a student. And it happened just

before morning assembly in the town of Potiskum in northeastern Nigeria.

Now CNN's Nima Elgabir is following the story. She joins me now live in London with the latest. Nima, what more have you learned about this

brutal attack.

We understand there were 2,000 students, Kristie, some as young as 11, coming together for their morning assembly expecting that their teachers

would be along shortly to speak with them and then one student describes it as a blinding light and the world going silent.

This comes after another similar attack in Potiskum about a week ago.

It does feel like there is a sense that the attacks in this part of Nigeria, in the northeast of Nigeria are stepping up in spite of the

Nigerian government last month believing that they were on the brink of a cease-fire deal with the Boko Haram militant group.

Now as yet nobody has claimed responsibility, but it really does have all the hallmarks of a Boko Haram attack. And given that this part of

northeast Nigeria is an enclave of Shia Muslims, which is quite rare in Nigeria and across west Africa to have a Shia enclave, it plays into much

of Boko Haram's claims that Shia are heretics and much of the rivalries that have been playing out between the two groups over the years.

So many of those we are speaking to believe that this is yet another Boko Haram attack in this part of the country, Kristie.

LU STOUT: This very deadly explosion bears, as you say, all the hallmarks of Boko Haram. And what is the overall security situation where

these attacks took place in northeastern Nigeria?

ELBAGIR: Well, this is one of the three states still under a state of emergency. This was meant to be part of the military surge, the military

push that the Nigerian government was supposed to be carrying out post the abduction of those schoolgirls in Chibo some six months ago now. But it

doesn't seem to have materialized yet on the ground, Kristie.

We hear a lot about these surges and these pushes and then we hear about attacks.

It does seem to be this horrific, vicious cycle that the people up in this part of the country are having to live with and have been having to

live with for years now. There doesn't seem to be an end in sight.

Last month, there was a glimmer of hope when the Nigerian government said that the -- in neighboring Chad, the Chadian government was going to

be brokering a cease-fire agreement. But two weeks ago, two weekends ago, the Nigerian -- the Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau came out in a video

and he was very brutal about any chances that these girls would be returned to their families.

And it just feels like this cycle of violence continues, Kristie.

LU STOUT: Nima Elbagir reporting for us. Many thanks indeed for that, Nima.

Now in Israel, police say a member of the Israel Defense Forces was stabbed at a bus stop in Tel Aviv today. A Palestinian suspect has been

arrested.

Now police describe the suspect as a terrorist and say the stabbing was a targeted attack.

The victim is between the age 18 and 20.

Now it is a day of collective mourning in Amsterdam as more than 1,600 relatives gather in the Dutch capital to remember the victims of Malaysia

Airlines flight 17.

Now all 298 people, they were on board and they were killed when the plane was shot down over Ukraine. Their names are being read out right

now. Let's listen.

(MH17 MEMORIAL SERVICE)

LU STOUT: Now that was the Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte speaking earlier at that memorial service currently underway in Amsterdam.

You're watching News Stream. And still to come, protests in Mexico City by activists angry over the government's response to the disappearance

of 43 college students.

The day of reckoning looms for the captain and crew and the Sewol ferry. The tragedy claimed the lives of hundreds of high school students.

A medical clinic in Thailand helping poor people from neighboring Myanmar. And for some Burmese, it is their last and best hope.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LU STOUT: Welcome back.

You're watching News Stream. And you're looking at a visual version of all the stories we've got in the show today.

Now, we've already told you about the issues on the agenda at APEC. And later, we'll take a closer look at the science of Interstellar, that's

Christopher Nolan's new film.

But now outrage is boiling over in Mexico over the fate of 43 missing college students.

Now angry protests erupted after Mexico's attorney general said Friday that the students were likely killed by gang members.

Now investigators are waiting on DNA test results to confirm whether charred remains found in a river are those of the missing students.

Now a local mayor and the police have been implicated in the student's disappearance. And CNN's Rosa Flores joins me now live from Guerrero State

in Mexico. And Rosa, anger is indeed on the rise over the government's handling of the case there.

ROSA FLORES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Kristie, image this: you get a phone call from your son saying that he and his friends have been ambushed. Shots

have been fired and that his friends are being beaten. The call goes off and you never hear from your son again.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ROSA FLORES, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Tensions erupt in Mexico's southern state of Guerrero.

(On camera): Take a look around. You can see charred vehicles.

(Voice-over): And in Mexico's capital. As the parents of 43 missing college students lose patience with authorities. It's been more than a

month, and no trace of their children. Not even after the arrest of more than 70 people, including a political power couple that Mexico's attorney

general says is the possible mastermind of the kidnapping.

This is cell phone video showing the mayor of Iguala and his wife being arrested. Authorities say the cartel-connected pair colluded with the

police chief and drug traffickers to kidnap, kill and dispose of the missing students. Neither the mayor nor his wife has commented.

Even before the couple was taken in, protesters were determined to take them down, burning their seat of power.

(On camera): This is the perfect example. It's Iguala city hall. But take a look. It's a charred building, a shell of what it was. Protesters

actually came in and wrote on the walls, "Alive we want them back."

(Voice-over): Fuelling anger in the community, taped confessions by three recently arrested cartel members, saying, they burned the bodies in a

public dump and tossed the remains into a river.

Edmundo Delgado (ph), a community activist, says too many people disappear in Mexico and are never found.

(On camera): He says if today there's 43 students who have gone missing and we don't find them, 10, 15 years from now, what can be -- what

can we expect?

(Voice-over): The parents of the missing students say they've lost patience.

(On camera): He says that this group has one message. That their response will get more and more radical.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FLORES: Mexico's president condemned the violence. The response from parents is they condemn inaction -- Kristie.

LU STOUT: All right. Rosa Flores reporting for us. Many thanks indeed for that update.

You're watching News Stream. Still to come on the program, desperate people from Myanmar seek medical care on the other side of the border with

Thailand. Keep it here.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LU STOUT: Coming to you live from Hong Kong, you're back watching News Stream.

Now the high cost of health care in Myanmar has caused thousands of poor people to cross the border into Thailand. A clinic there is treating

them for free.

Now Saima Mohsin spent time at the clinic that has become their last hope.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SAIMA MOHSIN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: This young baby and her mother have traveled across a border into another country simply to be

seen by a doctor.

"This clinic is free, and we can get the treatment she needs here. I can't afford the expensive health care in Myanmar," this mother tells me.

"So I've come all this way with her."

The weighing scales look disproportionately large compared with some of the malnourished babies brought here.

DR. CYNTHIA MUANG, DIRECTOR, MAE TAO CLINIC: During the 1988 uprising, I participate in the democratic movement. And when the military

took power and I fled to Thailand.

MOHSIN: So what are all these girls?

MUANG: This department is outpatient medical department.

MOHSIN: Dr.Cynthia Muang set up the clinic to treat people injured in the crackdown. Now, the clinic is responding to greater needs, treating

the poor that cannot find or afford health care indside Myanmar and undocumented migrant workers in Thailand.

All of this dependent on aid.

Hundreds queue every day waiting their turn to be seen. 150,000 patients are treated here every year for free.

One of the most striking wards we saw was this one, Burmese women coming to Thailand to give birth.

"I came here because there are no clinics in my area," this 20-year- old tells me. "There's no electricity or equipment. It will be hard at home. I was scared to give birth in Myanmar."

Dozens of women line the ward. They don't come here for the luxury, lying on crude wooden tables covered in plastic. Anxious fathers watch

over their babies.

While we are filming, nurses hold up a makeshift curtain. A new mother is hemorrhaging, while others look on. They've come here for the

best treatment possible.

There is no emergency room here. If things get worse, she'll be taken to another hospital in town.

MUANG: So we have 40 beds here. So almost 3,000 babies born a year at the clinic here. And we also have mothers who come in that get

treatment for malaria, because there is a lot of malaria in this area."

MOHSIN: Others come with malnutrition of premature babies, some leave without them.

Both these newborn babies have been abandoned. One has a deformity and is too expensive to treat. The other too expensive to take home.

200 abandoned babies are handed over to sheltered housing or local families every year. Doctor Cynthia tells me this isn't a regulated

procedure, but these 200 add to the thousands of undocumented, unidentified people living in this lost work between Myanmar and Thailand.

Saima Mohsin, CNN, Mae Sot (ph), Thailand.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LU STOUT: Too heartbreaking to see there.

You're watching News Stream. And still to come in the program, a weekend vigil here in Hong Kong to remember two women killed in a double

homicide. Details ahead.

Plus, the captain of the Sewol ferry in South Korea could face the death penalty over a tragedy that continues to haunt the nation.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LU STOUT: I'm Kristie Lu Stout in Hong Kong, you're watching News Stream. And these are your world headlines.

Now first a warning, this next video is graphic: a huge explosion took place outside a school in Nigeria. It has killed at last 47 people and

injured dozens more. And police tell CNN that the blast was caused by a suicide bomber dressed as a student.

Now no one has yet claimed responsibility, but police suspect the Islamist group Boko Haram is to blame.

Now U.S. President Barack Obama stressed the importance of economic ties with China during an address to APEC leaders in Beijing earlier on

Monday. He is expected to meet with China's president to discuss key foreign policy issues, including cyber security before heading to Myanmar

and Australia.

A poignant memorial service is winding down in Amsterdam. More than 1,600 people are gathered there to remember relatives killed in the crash

of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17. Now the jetliner was shot down over eastern Ukraine back in July. And two-thirds of the nearly 300 victims

were Dutch.

Now the fate of the leader of ISIS remains unclear following unconfirmed reports that he was injured in airstrikes near Iraq's northern

city of Mosul. Now the country's ministry of the interior says that the head of the insurgency group was indeed wounded and several senior aides

were killed.

Now the British banker was accused of murdering two young Indonesian women appeared in a Hong Kong court earlier today and proceedings against

Rurik Jutting will continue in two weeks. Now prosecutors say they want to see results from the 29-year-old's psychological reports before allowing

him to enter a plea. The two victims' bodies were found mutilated in Jutting's apartment.

Now I want to take a moment to remember the two women who were killed. Now 25-year-old Sumatra Ningsih and 29-year-old Seneng Mujiasih -- and this

was the scene here in Hong Kong on Sunday as some 200 people gathered for a vigil to remember the victims as the media suggested at least one of the

women might have been a sex worker. But whatever the case, both women, they came to the city as domestic workers, nearly half of Hong Kong's

domestic workers are from Indonesia.

It's a profession that draws many looking to make higher wages to support their families. And Sumatra's cousin, she was there at the

service. She says that like man others, Sumatra was forced to work abroad to feed her family back home in Indonesia.

Now a court in South Korea will deliver a verdict and sentence on Tuesday in the trials of the Sewol ferry captain and crew. More than 300

people, most of them high school students died when the ferry capsized in April.

Now the prosecution is seeking the death penalty for the captain. But even if the captain does receive that sentence, it is unlikely he'll be

executed. Paula Hancocks reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: 58 people are on death row in South Korea, but here the death penalty does not actually mean

death.

More than 900 people were executed since the creation of the country in 1948. The last hanging, though, was 17 years ago.

This unofficial moratorium started when Kim Dae-jung became president in 1998. As a pro-democracy activist, Kim was himself sentenced to death

in 1980. He was later pardoned after intervention from both the pope and the U.S. government.

JAN WETZEL, AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL: The death penalty in South Korea, especially during the military dictatorship before 1987 has been abused --

has been used and abused to get rid of political opponents.

HANCOCKS: Amnesty has launched many campaigns over the years calling for the death penalty to be abolished, saying it is a violation of the

right to life.

The Justice Ministry rejected our repeated requests for interview, saying simply there are no plans to review the policy, a policy in sharp

focus as the captain and 14 members of the crew of the doomed Sewol Ferry wait to hear their fate in court Tuesday. They escaped the sinking ship on

April 16, more than 300 did not.

The crew had announced they should stay where they were. Many of the victims were high school students.

Prosecutors are demanding the death penalty for the captain, a sentence which may not mean loss of life in this country, but effectively

means life imprisonment without the chance of parole.

Paula Hancocks, CNN, Seoul.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LU STOUT: Now worldwide, the death penalty is still regularly used as a form of punishment in nearly two dozen nations. Just take a look at this

map.

Now these are the 22 countries that execute prisoners. And according to Amnesty International, China leads the world in deaths by execution.

Last year, more than 1,000 people were reportedly executed there. Iran killed more than 369 prisoners, Iraq and Saudi Arabia are next on the list.

Now the U.S. was a distance fifth with 39 executions last year.

Overall, the use of the death penalty rose by almost 15 percent in the last year.

You're watching News Stream. And still to come on the program, millions of people headed to the theaters this weekend to see Interstellar.

And we'll tell you what the movie stayed true to science.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Soyuz in the final seconds of its descent for landing that we're looking at the moment. And here's our replay of...

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LU STOUT: And right there, three International Space Station crew members returned safely to Earth after almost six months on the

International Space Station.

Now during their mission, the team conducted key research on human health in long duration space travel. Next year, NASA and its Russian

counterparts, they're planning to send two crew members aboard the station for one full year.

Now the sci-fi film Interstellar it topped the global box office this weekend. Christopher Nolan's new movie follows a group of astronauts

searching for a new habitable planet.

Now they travel through a wormhole, that's a tunnel that connects distant regions of space and time. And of course the fate of humanity

rests on their mission.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAEL CAINE, ACTOR: Your daughter's generation will be the last to survive on Earth.

You're the best pilot we ever had. Get out there and save the world.

MATTHEW MCCONAUGHEY, ACTOR: Get ready to say goodbye to our solar system, to our galaxy. Here we go.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LU STOUT: Now let's get more now from a former NASA astronaut Mike Massimino. He is now professor at Columbia University and senior adviser

for space programs at the Intrepid museum. He joins me now live from New York.

Mike, so good to see you. Thank you for joining us.

So much heavy stuff in this movie, including worm holes. And I have to ask you -- and you know the question -- would an astronaut survive and

interstellar journey through a wormhole?

MIKE MASSIMINO, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY: Kristie, thanks for having me on.

I -- that's a really good question. I don't know. We've never come close to anything like that. But it's kind of interesting to bring up that

topic of how you can travel these great distances in a short amount of time and go to these other galaxies like they show in the movie.

I don't want to ruin the movie, but it's really interesting the way they depict all that happening.

I don't know. That would be quite an adventure, though.

LU STOUT: It would be quite an adventure.

Now, let's talk about something else that's brought up in the movie. I mean, in general, exoplanet science, I mean hunting for these alien

worlds that could possibly host life. I mean, what is happening right now in that search for planets that could support our species?

MASSIMINO: Well, that's something that scientists are actually doing.

With the Hubble space telescope, for example, we're -- my missions were with the space shuttle. We went to Hubble. And some of the

instruments we have on Hubble identify planets in other solar systems and then they have a spectrograph, one of the instruments we repaired on my

missions, that can analyze the atmospheres of those planets.

And so, yeah, it's something that would be a great discovery. And it came out in the news a few months ago where sometimes they had some targets

in some nearby, some further away, where they think it might be able to sustain life.

So, yeah, trying to find an Earthlike planet or something that might be able to sustain life as we know it would be a very exciting discovery.

And it certainly is something that astronomers and scientists are almost constantly looking for. That's a great -- when they find something they

think could host life, they get very excited about it.

So there are possibilities out there.

LU STOUT: Now I haven't seen the movie yet, but I have seen the trailer. And when I'm looking at the trailer and I see Anne Hathaway,

Matthew McConaughey reach for the stars and go way out there, let's talk about reality here on Earth, because we've seen some major setbacks in

space travel recently, Mike. I mean, the failure of the Antares rocket, the SpaceShipTwo crash, what are your thoughts on these two setbacks and

what they mean for the future of space travel?

MASSIMINO: I think it's kind of -- Kristie, I think it was just kind of a reminder that whenever we get comfortable and think that everything is

going to be easy when it comes to space travel, it's not. It's really -- it's really difficult. And you know, that first supply ship that went down

a couple of weeks ago, that was bad, it was supplies that were going to go to the space station, but we can replace all that stuff. When we lost that

test flight engineer on the Virgin Galactic team, that was a lot worse, because now we hurt people.

But I think it's just a reminder that there's going to be risk no matter what you do.

There's risk in just about everything we do in life, I mean, whether it's driving a car or flying an airplane, but when it comes to space travel

it's really difficult. And things are going to happen every once in awhile that is going to make a setback. And I think it's going to be interesting

to see the way that they're able to react to that and make sure that the next time they fly they're going to be safe. And I'm sure they're going to

be safe -- so I think they're going to meet that challenge and keep going.

LU STOUT: Yeah, there's a lot of risk involved. And there are a lot of critics out there. And many of our viewers may be watching this and

asking why bother? Why spend money on space when there's too much money and too many lives at stake?

What's your answer to that?

MASSIMINO: I think that it's a pretty good question to ask, you know. It's just like we have a budget just like your budget at home, right. You

can't spend all your money on one thing, but you need to spend your money on different things. And certainly I think you can make an argument that

there are things that people may think are more important that space travel. Even I don't think it's necessarily the most important thing we

have going. But I think it is something that is important for the NASA program, for example, I think it's an investment in our future. It's

answering basic questions. And it is worthy of some funding, of keeping it going and keeping it going at a healthy level.

And then this other area like Virgin Galactic where it's more of a tourist experience for people to fly in space, I think that there's an

entrepreneurial opportunity for people like Richard Branson and other entrepreneurs. You see a lot of these smart guys, Elon Musk and these

other entrepreneurs trying to get in on this activity. It's very exciting. And it's something that people want to do to experience space flight.

So I think there's the -- you know, there's the government side, which is trying to help us for the future and build opportunities for the

commercial companies. And there's a commercial side where these guys are doing it because they think it's exciting and they think that there's

actually a market kind of like airplanes were 100 years ago. It was, you know, a fledgling industry and now we have airplanes taking off every three

seconds around the world.

So, I think those are the answers.

Yeah, there's other things that are more important, you know. We've got to keep people healthy, alive and fed and so on. That's more

important. But this is something we do for our future. And I think that makes it worth at least some of our money and attention.

LU STOUT: Well, Mike, you've seen things that most of here on Earth have never seen before. I really appreciate the perspective and also your

take on that epic sci-fi film. Thank you so much.

Mike Massimino there.

That is News Stream. I'm Kristie Lu Stout. Don't go anywhere, because World Sport is up next with Alex Thomas.

END